Kesi ya Saileth Vithlani wa kashfa ya Rada

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Na hii inaonyesha jinsi tunavyoset priorities zetu. ....Kuhangaika na mambo yasiyo na tija tena kwa kutumia resources nyingi.
 
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam


He is understood to have even financed a trip by a delegation of senior Government officials abroad to try to convince them to award him more contracts.

Taja hao "senior Government officials" kwenye msafara wa kumwona Vithlani, taja mmoja. Mwongo mkubwa we.
 
Taja hao "senior Government officials" kwenye msafara wa kumwona Vithlani, taja mmoja. Mwongo mkubwa we.

Mkuu utafikiri unaongea na mwandishi moja kwa moja? Ukal wote huo na wala anaweza asione ulicho kisema. Relax mkuu hamna haja ya hasira.
 
Wakuu, Hii imenipita au haikuwekwa hapa kabisa...

RADAR - BAE: Sailesh Vithlani cornered by UK authorities

19th July 2009


Vithlan.jpg

Sailesh Vithlani


Sailesh Vithlani the man who has been hiding out in Switzerland for years to escape prosecution for brokering the BAE radar scam has finally been cornered by UK authorities.

Vithlani fled Tanzania almost three years ago while out on bail for charges involving the trumped up $40million radar deal, and since then the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has sought help from the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in getting Vithlani extradited back to the country to face the charges.

According to reliable information confirmed by sources within the SFO and the PCCB, Vithlani has been apprehended and will be extradited to Tanzania in the next few weeks.

Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has sought help from the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in getting Vithlani extradited back to the country to face the charges.

According to reliable information confirmed by sources within the SFO and the PCCB, Vithlani has been apprehended and will be extradited to Tanzania in the next few weeks.

The move by UK’s authority follows an official request made by PCCB chief Edward Hosea in April, which, among other things, asked the UK to assist in the extradition of all key officials accused of corruption in the controversial radar deal.

Apart from Vithlani, three UK citizens, including a former close aide to Tony Blair, have been implicated in the controversial radar deal, The Guardian on Sunday has established.

Vithlani organised the $40 million deal between the UK arms suppliers British Aerospace Engineering (BAE Systems) and the Tanzanian government, and allegedly received kickbacks amounting to $12 million that he shared with at least seven high-ranking officials from the previous Tanzanian administration.

Vithlani’s capture and subsequent extradition will put in motion the first prosecution involving the deal, in which BAE Systems peddled a watchman radar at about Sh16billion above the market price.

“We have him…he is under our watch and once everything is finalised we shall hand him over to the Tanzanian authority,” a senior SFO official told The Guardian on Sunday on Friday in a phone interview.

Vithlani cooperated with the SFO’s investigation of the deal in exchange for legal immunity in that country, but the UK official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the UK couldn’t shield Vithlani from the prosecutions in Tanzania.

“The UK can’t protect any individual proved to be implicated in corruption or any other forms of serious crimes,” said the official, who has been working on the BAE case with controller Mathew Cowie. “Vithlani is within our reach and once everything is ready he will be extradited to Tanzania.”

Vithlani’s arrest and prosecution will be a breakthrough for Dr Hosea and his team at the PCCB, which has faced growing public pressure to deliver on the case that it has been investigating for nearly four years.

But, if Vithlani serves jail time in Tanzania, it could complicate things for the SFO, which once described Vithlani as a potential witness after he admitted to receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks for brokering the radar deal.

His admission in 2007 that $12million was covertly moved to his Swiss bank account by BAE Systems angered some top government officials from the previous regime. He said BAE had made two parallel arrangements with the middlemen.

In the first, a conventional agency agreement was signed.

Under this, a 1-percent commission was to be paid if the $40m radar deal went through, to a Tanzania-registered firm, Merlin International Ltd.

Vithlani was the majority shareholder in Merlin, his partner Tanil Somaiya said, while he had a small token interest himself. BAE paid the $400,000 in installments, Somaiya said, as the radar equipment was delivered.

But under a second, more unusual agreement, BAE's secretly owned offshore company Red Diamond deposited another $12million, representing 30 percent of the contract price, in Switzerland.

That money was under the personal control of Vithlani, Somaiya said, and this had been admitted to UK police.

The back-door payment represented 30 percent of the contract value. “They now see him as a betrayer and that’s why he needs strong protection,” an official close to the investigation told The Guardian on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

A tough task ahead The BAE case has put UK authorities in a tight position over the years, with one official diplomat from the British High Commission in Dar es Salaam trying to block the investigation at one point.

The official, who has since retired and returned to the UK, tried unsuccessfully to block PCCB officials from nailing two Britons believed to be close associates of former Prime Minister Blair.

In one incident, the diplomat wrote a very damning dossier asking for the protection for the Britons implicated in the case, to avoid what he described as a huge embarrassment to the UK and to Blair’s regime.

The diplomat wrote that it would be embarrassing for the world to know that some of Blair’s close associates connived to ‘steal’ from a poor country like Tanzania whose budget is in large part financed by foreign donors including the UK.

The dossier was intercepted by top officials within the SFO, who then leaked the information to the PCCB.
On June 12, 2007, Blair defended the government's 2006 decision to halt the SFO’s investigation into alleged bribery surrounding BAE Systems' contracts with Saudi Arabia.

The former prime minister told the House of Commons that continuing the investigation would have damaged the UK's relationship with the oil-rich country.

Since 1985, BAE Systems has signed $80billion worth of arms contracts with Saudi Arabia. But it was alleged these were agreed in return for payments totalling £1 billion to Prince Bander.

The government halted the SFO investigation in December 2006 and the case has since been investigated by the OECD.

Who is Vithlani?
Born on October 3, 1964, in Mwanza, Sailesh Vithlani grew up poor and was fixated at a young age on getting rich quickly.

In 1986, two years after graduating from Lake Secondary School, Vithlani secured $2,000 to start his first business, brokering gold from the Mwanza area.

“He established strong ties to the black market in Kenya…and after few months he bought two vehicles and formed a company to supply various services to the army,” a relative of Vithlani told The Guardian on Sunday recently.

After dealing with the army for about two years, Vithlani moved his base to the country’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, with his business associate and childhood friend, Tanil Somaiya.

He was tipped-off by close friends of the booming business of catering to the army in Dar es Salaam. Together the two friends relocated from Mwanza and opened a company, which they used to win lucrative military tenders.

According to reliable sources in Dar es Salaam, two controversial deals involving the purchase of a radar and the presidential jet earned Vithlani close to $25million.

In Dar, Vithlani has longstanding relationships with military and government figures, relationships he was able to milk when the opportunity to transact dubious deals with the government arose.

To those who knew him growing up, Vithlani was a very well bred person who has always been meticulous, if ruthless, in planning how he would earn his riches by his mid-30s.

His former secondary school teacher described Vithlani as “very polite, shy, humble, but very ambitious.”

“In class he was mainly interested in studying English language and commerce…he spent more time reading western literature novels, especially those focusing on crime,” the teacher told The Guardian on Sunday.

In the early 1990s, as he accrued greater wealth Vithlani relocated his mother and younger brother to South London.

He applied for a British passport five years later and qualified for one, despite holding onto his Tanzanian passport.

In 1992, Vithlani first proposed a $220m military radar tender to the government of Tanzania, but the deal didn’t mature due to lack of funds. If the deal had gone through, Vithlani would have earned a kickback amounting to $70m, according to a close friend.


SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
 
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Good News!!

However the incompetence and corruption of the PCCB and the prosecuters is scary. Lets hope they do not screw this up.
 
Good News!!

However the incompetence and corruption of the PCCB and the prosecuters is scary. Lets hope they do not screw this up.


If in deed this guy do have that money in his bank account and he has a British Passport taking him back to Tanzania will be an uphill struggle for the PCCB. I hope they succeed
 
The most important thing here is not bloody Sailesh Vithlani to be brought back to Tanzania but the money to be recovered and returned to Tanzania.
It is a waste of our resources to continue seeking for his extradition to Tz, na kuendesha kesi ambayo ni nchi nyingine iligundua huo ufisadi.

Ingelikuwa manufaa kwa nchi kuingia makubaliano naye atutajie waliokula naye njama serikalini ili wachukuliwe hatua za kisheria na yeye awe tayari kutoa ushahidi, na uraia wake ufutwe mara moja na akubali kurudisha fedha za umma kupitia shinikizo la Interpol na makubaliano kati ya Tz na nchi ya Uswiss.

Handling the issue otherwise italetea kina Hosea and friends kujinufainshia tena kwenye hiki kitita, huku wakitumia mamilioni ya fedha za walipa kodi kuendesha hiyo kesi. Upuuzi mtupu!!!
 
The most important thing here is not bloody Sailesh Vithlani to be brought back to Tanzania but the money to be recovered and returned to Tanzania...

I agree it is more important to recover the money. However it is still important that Vithlani and his buddies (Chenge, Rashidi, etc) are prosecuted, found guilty and imprisoned. This will send a message that this kind of corruption will not be tolerated and there will be consequences.

If thieves are only required to return what they stole and are not brought to justice what is to stop more people from stealing. If i'm caught i will just return the money and continue on my merry way.
 
The former 'Mkulu' must be sweating profusely upon learning about the arrest of Vithlani. I'm told part of the dosh was deposited in his account.
 
Thisday walijua kabla?

Major breakthrough in radar investigation

-British detectives set to help get things moving on local front

THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam

A MAJOR breakthrough has been made in the 28 million pound sterling (approx. 58bn/-) military radar scandal investigation, with Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) expected to deliver a ’’sensitive package’’ to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Dar es Salaam within a few days.

Sources close to the ongoing probe have told THISDAY that the SFO assistance ’’will practically enable PCCB to wrap up its case ready for prosecution.’’

’’The Bureau is now awaiting a
sensitive package from the SFO in the UK that will certainly ensure an airtight case is sent to the courts for prosecution,’’ a well-placed source said, adding:

’’The package is expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam from Britain within the next few days.’’

The PCCB is understood to have all along been working closely with the SFO, which has been slowly and painstakingly conducting its own investigation into the 2002 radar transaction scandal.

In 2006, SFO detectives came over to Dar es Salaam to interview the lead suspect in the investigation, transaction middleman
Shailesh Pragji Vithlani, before he skipped the country and an international warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued.

Officials familiar with the radar investigation told THISDAY recently that the PCCB has been struggling to build an airtight case against some prominent suspects.

In February this year, the Government anti-corruption watchdog said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Eliezer Feleshi, had opted to withhold his mandatory consent for the prosecution of the suspects pending further investigations.

DPP Feleshi is understood to have returned the radar case file to the PCCB to gather more evidence sufficient for a successful prosecution.

Since then, the PCCB has not sought fresh consent from the DPP to take the long-running case to court.

But our well-placed sources now say the arrival of the ’’sensitive package’’ from the UK should pave the way for things to really get moving vis-a-vis the radar case.

Vithlani is among at least four prominent Tanzanian personalities that have so far been named by the SFO as key targets in the radar deal investigation.

Others being probed by the British sleuths include former attorney general Andrew Chenge, ex-Bank of Tanzania governor Dr Idris Rashidi, and prominent local businessman Tanil Somaiya.

According to the SFO, both Vithlani and Somaiya were directly linked with the locally-registered Merlin International Limited company and the offshore Envers Trading Corporation company, which received illegal payments from the UK-based radar-selling firm BAE Systems to facilitate the transaction.

It is believed that BAE paid a whopping $12m in illegal kickbacks used to bribe top Government officials in the third phase Government of ex-president Benjamin Mkapa, to approve the dubious deal.

Austria announced recently that it expects to bring its own corruption charges in connection with BAE arms sales; the first such prosecution in five years of various BAE bribery investigations around the world.

The Austrian prosecutors’ decision follows the emergence of new documents that outline in considerable detail the channelling of secret BAE cash to Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, an Austrian aristocrat said to have been working undercover for the arms firm.

In one memo, Mensdorff claims Austria was persuaded to buy BAE Eurofighters in 2002 for 1.7 billion euros (1.5 billion pounds sterling), thanks to ’’aggressive incentive payments to key decision-makers.’’




ThisDay
 
Good News!!

However the incompetence and corruption of the PCCB and the prosecuters is scary. Lets hope they do not screw this up.

That is exactly what they will do. Kama aliruhusiwa kuondoka akija atapokelewa kwa ulinzi na atafichwa na tutaambia haonekani hapa kwetu Tanzania, na tutaambiwa ametoroka.And that is when SFO watajua kuwa we are joking, and we thought that they will not nab him.
 
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 18 (1 members and 17 guests) haya SFO wanasoma JF?!!!??
 
Good news indeed!

But, with our SPOON FED LEADERS, do you think they will do anything to him?

I can predict already that DPP will come up with excuse, "the file was sent back to PCCB for further investigation"

SPOON FEED at HOME, SPOON FEED at WORK! That's the order of the day in our government.
 
Kwa mtiririko wa habari. Nadhani hukumu ya huyu jamaa imeshapangwa na kukubaliana kati ya watu wa system ya UK na Tanzania. Kuletwa tanzania nadhani ni kukamilisha ratiba tu . Huyu jamaa nadhani ana taarifa nyeti amabzo zinaweza kuchafua hata image ya UK kwa hiyo kwa namna fulani atalindwa.

Kwa hii kasfa nadhani tunaweza kuona kuwa misaada ya nchi nyingi zilizoendela sio misaada ni danganya toto. tunapewa misaada au mikopo then wanatunigiz amkenge wa kunua mali za nchi zao tena kwa bei ya juu. Hii BAE kampuni ya yenye hisa nyini za serikali kama inafanya hivi je zile kampuni binafsi zinafanya dili gani.

Nadhani kwa kiasi fulani ni cnhi za scannavia tu ndio kwa asilimia fulani miasaada au mikopo yao sio ya utata sana.

Sasa badala ya watanzania kufurahi kila tukisikia tumepewa mikopo au misaada inabidi tujiulize nyuma ya hiyo misaada kuna dili gani.
 
Mhh ni habari nzito na inahusu watu wazito.

Tatizo hapo ni kama kutakuwa na mafanikio katika "extradition process". Hatujui bwana Sailesh Vithlani ana uwezo gani kwa kuzingatia kwamba yeye ni raia wa Uingereza na pia ana makazi ya kudumu nchini UK.

Je kuna mwanasheria yeyote hapa ambae anafahamu mambo haya ya extradition treaties?, maana yapo complex na yanaweza kusukuma miaka.

Hata hivyo nina matumaini kwamba Tanzania ni mwanachama wa Commonwealth na kutokana na hayo Extradition Act ya mwaka 1989 ukarasa wa 33 itafuatwa.
 
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